06.25.08

“There’s certainly some stuff I can think of for one of the greatest infielders I’ve ever seen,” says the Yankees’ ever gracious Hank Steinbrenner of deposed Mets manager Willie Randolph (as quoted by the New York Post’s Mike Puma). And who am I to suggest Steinbrenner is delusional if he believes Randolph would sooner work for him than continue to collect his Mets money while watching TV?

Hank Steinbrenner made it clear that he considers Randolph a Yankee and holds no ill-will toward him for leaving the organization to manage the Mets, who fired him last week.

“If he had left to take over the Red Sox maybe I would have had a problem with that,” Steinbrenner said. “He’s a Yankee. He’ll always be a Yankee. Even the Mets never completely accepted him because they thought he was a Yankee.”

Steinbrenner said he didn’t want to comment on the manner in which Randolph was fired because he’s not “one of those talk-radio types” who spews on subjects he knows little about.

Still, Steinbrenner couldn’t resist one jab at the Mets.

“They probably could have handled it a little differently than 3 o’clock in the morning,” Steinbrenner said, referring to the timing of the press release announcing Randolph’s firing.